Zeus
Category:ArticlesCategory:Characters Category:Deities Category:Gods of Mount OlympusCategory:Earth-S/Characters | aliases = Zeus Panhellenios | continuity = DC Universe Marvel Universe | series = | image = | notability = | type = Deity | occupation = | race = Gods of Olympus | gender = | base of operations = | associations = | known relatives = | status = | born = | died = | 1st appearance = | final appearance = | actor = }} Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter. His mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Overview Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus.8 At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, by whom the Iliad states that he fathered Aphrodite. Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. Marvel Universe Zeus is the youngest son of Cronus and Rhea beings known as Titans who once ruled Olympus. The Titans were the offspring of the sky god Ouranos and the primeval earth goddess Gaea. Cronus overthrew his father's rule by fatally wounding him. The dying Ouranus prophesied that Cronus would likewise be overthrown by one of his own children. As a result, upon the birth of each of his own children, Cronus had the infant imprisoned in Tartarus, the most dismal section of the extra dimensional underworld known as Hades. The offspring he sent there were Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. Appalled at the mistreatment of their children, Cronus's wife Rhea concealed her sixth pregnancy from him and secretly gave birth to Zeus on Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia, an area of the land now known as Greece. Rhea gave the infant Zeus to the safekeeping of Gaea who hid him on the island of Crete Zeus grew to adulthood among the shepherds of Mount Ida, Crete, and then set about taking revenge on Cronus. Zeus went down into Tartarus and freed his siblings, who had all now grown to adulthood, Zeus also freed the three one-eyed giants called Cyclopes and the three hundred-handed giants called Hekatonchieres, all six of whom Cronus had imprisoned there for fear they would help overthrow him. The grateful Cyclopes taught Zeus how to wield his energy-manipulating powers in battle. Zeus and his allies fought a ten year war with the Titans which ended with Zeus's victory. He imprisoned most of the male Titans in Tartarus and established himself in the small "pocket" dimension of Olympus as supreme ruler of the Olympian race. Zeus married the goddess Hera and along with Poseidon, Demeter and Hestia, together with Zeus's children Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Venus, comprised the membership of the high council of the Olympian gods known as the Pantheon. Hestia later resigned her seat in the council in favor of Zeus's son Dionysus. Zeus's brother Hades was not a member of the Pantheon, preferring to spend virtually all of his time within Hades, which he ruled. In ancient times Zeus and his fellow Olympians successfully defeated challenges to their rule by the giants Otis and Ephialtes, by a small army of superhuman giants, and, most dangerously, by the monster Typhoeus, father of Typhon, the Titan who has menaced the Olympians in recent times. The Hyborian Age In 50,000 B.C., the inhabitants of Atlantis seemingly worshiped Jupiter, yet it is unclear if it was Zeus or another entity. After the end of the Hyborian Age, the Olympian gods sought worshipers on Earth. (It seems unclear if the Olympian gods themselves existed during the Hyborian Age. Once, the descendants of time-traveling Greeks, who had come to the Hyborian Age from the time of Alexander the Great, encountered a native temporal inhabitant of the Hyborian Age. This native temporal inhabitant of the Hyborian Age, upon hearing these people invoke Zeus, stated "I never heard of a god or demon named Zoos".) Neptune became the patron god of the water-breathing Atlanteans, worshiped as early 5800 BCE. Zeus sought that the Olympian gods be worshiped by the people of the land known as Greece. Ancient Greece and the Rise of Christianity He engaged in many love affairs with goddesses and with mortal Earth women both before and during the Heroic Age of ancient Greece. Some of his children were gods; others were mortal human beings such as Helen of Troy. Zeus's son by the mortal woman Alcmena, Hercules, was born a mortal, but Zeus transformed him into an immortal god later. Zeus also learned that Greece's Mount Olympus, the location of the main inter-dimensional nexus between the Olympian dimension and Earth, lay near Olympia, the principal city of the Eternals. Zeus and his daughter Athena, goddess of wisdom, held a meeting with Zuras, the leader of the Eternals, and his daughter Thena. Noticing the strong physical resemblance between Zeus and Zuras and between Azura and herself, Athena suggested that the Olympian gods and the Eternals form an alliance whereby the Eternals would act as the gods' representatives on Earth. The other three enthusiastically agreed, and Azura took her current name of Thena to signify the signing of the pact. However, over the years many ordinary human beings came to think of many Eternals not as the gods' representatives but as the gods themselves. This led to a growing resentment by the gods towards the Eternals which recently erupted into a brief war. Worship of the Olympian gods spread from Greece to Rome and throughout the Roman Empire. The gods intervened frequently in human matters at first, as in the Trojan War, but did so less as time passed. When Christianity finally replaced the worship of the Olympian gods in the Roman Empire, Zeus decided that the time had come for the Olympians to break most of their ties with Earth. Neptune, however, was still allowed to watch over his Atlantean worshipers. Since the worship of the Olympian gods had died out, Zeus forbade his brother Pluto, ruler of Hades, the Olympian underworld, from collecting any more of the souls of the dead from Earth. Pluto obeyed the edict resentfully. Finally, the bitter Pluto convinced himself that Zeus had proven himself to be an incompetent leader by allowing the worship of the Olympians to come to an end. Zeus, noting Pluto's increasingly ominous rebelliousness, warned him against attempting to overthrow him. Nonetheless, Pluto has attempted unsuccessfully to overthrow Zeus, as has Zeus's own son, the war god Ares. However, despite the end of the worship of the Olympian gods, Zeus has retained affection for and interest in the people of Earth. Age of Vikings A millennium ago Zeus' son Hercules led a band of warriors he had transported through time from ancient Greece to battle Norsemen who were under the protection of the Asgardian god Thor. This conflict led to war between the Asgardians and Olympians. Zeus secretly met with Odin, ruler of the Asgardians, and the two gods not only put an end to the war, but also formed an alliance to defend Earth from danger posed by the alien Celestials. Odin and Zeus met with the heads of the other races of gods who were or had been worshiped by Earth mortals to discuss the Celestials' possible threat to Earth, and then Odin, Zeus, and the Hindu god Vishnu went to confront the Third Host of the Celestials on behalf of all of Earth's gods. However, Odin and Zeus were forced to pledge not to interfere with the Celestials when the Celestials threatened to seal off the interdimensional passageways connecting the gods' dimensions with Earth. As a result of this pledge, the Olympian gods had to lessen their contact with Earth, although Zeus's offspring Hercules and Venus spent periods living among Earth human beings in recent years. The Celestials' Fourth Host recently decided to spare Earth from destruction and left the planet. The Twentieth Century For reasons unknown, Zeus had gone on an extended leave of absence, leaving Olympus under the command of Aphrodite during a period in which the Olympians began adopting their Roman names. Eventually Aphrodite, as Venus, relocated Olympus to the planet named after her. She soon grew bored and returned to Earth to find real love.7 In 1949, Zeus (now calling himself Jupiter) learned of this and was furious. He appeared before Venus and demanded that she return to Olympus at once, but she refused stating that she had work on Earth to do by helping lovers stay together. Jupiter then offered her a challenge that she could not find the perfect couple and keep them together in a week. Venus did find this couple in Meg Saunders and Danny Fine. In an effort to make Venus lose, Jupiter sent Apollo and Daphne to Earth in mortal guises to try and break the couple up. However, Venus saw through the attempt and foiled it winning her right to stay on Earth. Jupiter was more benevolent to Venus' mission thereafter, but regularly tested her right to remain on Earth. Having previously banished the Asgardian god Loki to Hades, Jupiter was forced to let him loose due to a loop hole in his banishment by allowing Venus to remain on Earth. Loki then set about spreading hate across the Earth until Venus promised to be his queen in Hades. Jupiter then intervened telling Venus that she passed her test and banished Loki to Hades once more. Next when Jupiter's daughter Joya accused Venus of forsaking her godhood for the love of mortal Whitney Hammond, Jupiter wearily agreed to have a trial to prove Joya's accusations. Both Venus and Whitney Hammond were brought to Olympus to stand trial. However the trial abruptly ended when Loki invaded Olympus. Joya, seeing the errors of her was disguised herself as Venus and offered herself as a bride to Loki to stop the invasion. Soon after, Hammond proved his devoted love to Venus and Jupiter returned the couple to Earth. In 1950, Jupiter became more of a help to Venus, often coming to her aid whenever she summoned him. When Venus was attempting to reunite long lost lovers Rona Sanders and George Huston, she found herself in trouble due to the fact that Huston had fallen in love with her and refused to love Rona, who was dying of an illness. Apparently, only George's love for Rona could cure her. Venus called on Jupiter for aid and he imbued Rona with a portion of Venus' powers causing George to love her and cure her of her illness at the same time. Later, when Apollo requested to return to Earth to once more try and win Venus' love, Jupiter denied the request. In order to get around this, Apollo made a deal with the demon Zoroba to possess his body while Apollo's spirit was sent to Earth. Zoroba took the opportunity to bring Loki to Olympus and posing as Apollo attempted to convince Jupiter to allow Loki to leave his exile in Hades and reside on Olympus. However, Venus eventually exposed the plot and forced Apollo to return to his body, and Jupiter once more banished Loki back to Hades. Shortly thereafter, Venus and rocket scientist Rodney Dover found themselves stranded on the moon and imperiled by a volcanic eruption. Jupiter was summoned once more and he stopped the flow of lava then dispatched Mercury to return Venus and Rodney to Earth. Earth was once more in peril when scientist Michael Templar built a device that threatened to hurtle the Earth into the sun. Venus sought Jupiter's aid to stop this, but it was beyond his power to stop the Earth's path to destruction. Instead he had Mercury take Venus to the man responsible to try and get him to stop the disaster. As Earth edged closer to extinction, Jupiter appealed to Venus to return to Olympus, warning her that even an immortal goddess might not be able to survive plunging into the sun. However, Venus eventually convinced Michael to build the device and saved the Earth. Not long after Olympus was endangered by creatures that were literally spawned from the mind of mad scientist Buffanoff. Jupiter recruited the aid of Apollo and the Asgardian thunder god Thor to defend Olympus from the creatures. When the creatures proved to be too powerful to stop, Venus saved Olympus by tricking them into following her back into the Professor's dying brain where the creatures also perished. In 1951 Jupiter could not aid Venus when she was trapped in the nation of Cassarobia due to the fact that Loki had placed a spell over the region that prevented the Gods from using their powers there. However, Jupiter appealed to Loki's love for Venus when she was captured by Cassarobia's sultan and convinced him to remove the spell, saving Venus from joining sultan's harem. Jupiter next aided Venus by freeing her from the hypnotic control of Romany hypnotist Roberto. Later he allowed Venus to seek the aid of Mars and Thor to stop insane inventor John Dark and his mechanized army, and Thor again when the Earth was terrorized by the Creeping Death. Venus also sought council from Jupiter prior to undertaking a mission to the planet Mars. Jupiter helped Venus, when she was almost strangled to death by the Raoul Hamud, by teleporting her to Olympus in order to save her life. Later when Venus captured Adonis after he ran amok on Earth, she turned him over to Jupiter for punishment. Soon after, Zeus ceased offering his assistance to Venus for reasons unexplained. He eventually resumed using his traditional Grecian name after this period. The Modern era & Beyond Zeus remained the ruler of the Olympian gods and of Olympus itself, as well as a staunch ally of the Asgardians. He set up the Olympia Corporation to maintain a small presence on Earth. An alternate future of the 24th century has been glimpsed in which Zeus and the other Olympian gods, except for Hercules, left Olympus for another plane of existence. Hercules remained behind to father a new race of gods. Whether or not the Olympian gods would come to such an end in our universe is as yet unknown. Recently, Zeus led the Olympian gods in battle against the forces of Mikaboshi. With the aid of the remaining gods of the Japanese pantheon, who had been attacked and decimated by Mikaboshi's forces, the Olympians were victorious. Zeus sustained severe injuries at the hands of Mikaboshi and died. His brother Pluto took him prisoner and put him on a mock trial, to be judged by all his old enemies and other various villains. Despite Hercules' defense of his father, and Zeus' words on his own behalf (that without Zeus (as God) their lives would be ruled by blind coincidence), the jury decided against Zeus, and he was forced to drink the waters from the River Lethe, which erased his memory and regressed his body to that of a child's. He escaped with Hercules and they determined to hide him from Hera until grown. While lacking his once-great strength, he retained his ability to control the weather and summon lightning powerful enough to smite trolls and other monsters. He was recently returned to his previous form of a full grown adult after the events of Chaos War and ruled the Olympians from the new Mount Olympus. When Hulk tried to force Zeus to help his family, Zeus then mocked his heroism and gave the green goliath a humiliating defeat in battle, but allowed his son Hercules to rescue Hulk, believing that no torment that he gave to him could be worse than he simply being the Hulk. DC Universe Zeus is the ruler of the Gods of Olympus of Greek mythology. In the continuity of the New 52, he is the father of Wonder Woman. He was first adapted for the DC Universe by Jerry Siegel and Ira Yarbrough, debuting in ''Superman'' #28 in 1944. Zeus is the ruler of Mount Olympus and the King of the Olympian Gods. His power and authority supersedes that of the other Olympians. He is also a member of the Quintessence, and is one of the benefactors of the Marvel Family. He bestows power to Billy Batson, which he utilizes in his heroic guise as Captain Marvel. Notes & Trivia Appearances See also External Links References